1728-1779 Dutch Anton Raphael Mengs Gallery Mengs was born in 1728 at Usti nad Labem (German: Aussig) in Bohemia on 12 March 1728; he died in Rome 29 June 1779. His father, Ismael Mengs, a Danish painter, established himself finally at Dresden, whence in 1741 he took his son to Rome. In Rome, his fresco painting of Parnassus at Villa Albani gained him a reputation as a master painter. The appointment of Mengs in 1749 as first painter to Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony did not prevent his spending much time in Rome, where he had married Margarita Quazzi who had sat for him as a model in 1748, and abjured the Protestant faith, and where he became in 1754 director of the Vatican school of painting, nor did this hinder him on two occasions from obeying the call of Charles III of Spain to Madrid. There Mengs produced some of his best work, and specially the ceiling of the banqueting-hall of the Royal Palace of Madrid, the subject of which was the Triumph of Trajan and the Temple of Glory. Among his pupils there was Agust??n Esteve. After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs returned to Rome, and there he died, two years later, in poor circumstances, leaving twenty children, seven of whom were pensioned by the king of Spain. His portraits and autoportraits recall an attention to detail and insight, often lost from the grand manner paintings. Besides numerous paintings in the Madrid gallery, the Ascension and St Joseph at Dresden, Perseus and Andromeda at Saint Petersburg, and the ceiling of the Villa Albani must be mentioned among his chief works. In 1911, Henry George Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, possessed a Holy Family, and the colleges of All Souls and Magdalen, at Oxford, possessed altar-pieces by Mengs's hand. In his writings, in Spanish, Italian and German, Mengs has put forth his eclectic theory of art, which treats of perfection as attainable by a well-schemed combination of diverse excellences Greek design, with the expression of Raphael, the chiaroscuro of Correggio, and the colour of Titian. He would have fancied himself the first neoclassicist, while in fact he may be the last flicker of Baroque art. Or in the words of Wittkower, In the last analysis, he is as much an end as a beginning. His intimacy with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who constantly wrote at his dictation, has enhanced his historical importance, for he formed no scholars, and the critic must now concur in Goethe's judgment of Mengs in Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert; he must deplore that so much learning should have been allied to a total want of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a strained and artificial mannerism. Mengs was famous for his rivalry with the contemporary Italian painter Pompeo Batoni.  Related Paintings of Anton Raphael Mengs :. | Diana as Personification of the Night by Anton Raphael Mengs. | Portrait of Charles III of Spain | Self-portrait | Retrato de la Marquesa de Llano | Retrato de la Marquesa de Llano |
Related Artists:
Manovens, Francisco Masriera
Spanish Painter, 1842-1902
marie suzanne giroust roslin
Marie-Suzanne Giroust, född 9 mars 1734 i Paris, Frankrike, död 31 augusti 1772 i Paris, var en fransk konstnär, i huvudsak verksam inom pastellmåleri. Hon var gift med den svenske porträttmålaren Alexander Roslin från 1759 till sin död. Dotter till Barthelemy Giroust och Marie Suzanne Leroy. När Giroust var sju år gammal, dog hennes far som var juvelerare. Fyra år senare dog även hennes mor, och hon flyttade in hos släktingar. Arvet efter fadern gav henne möjlighet att uppta målarstudier. Hon inledde sina studier hos Maurice Quentin de La Tour, men det var hos Joseph-Marie Vien hon kom att finna sig tillrätta. I Viens atelj?? träffade hon 1752 Alexander Roslin och blev förälskad. Girousts förmyndare kunde dock inte acceptera den svenske målaren som blivande make, då han var fattig och protestant.[1] Paret kämpade för sin kärlek, och Giroust vägrade att träffa de friare som hennes förmyndare föreslog för henne.[1] Efter medling av bland andra Roslins vän och beskyddare, Comte de Caylus, kunde Roslin och Giroust gifta sig, den 5 januari 1759. Paret Roslin fick mellan 1760 och 1772 sex barn, tre döttrar och tre söner, varav två döttrar och två söner nådde vuxen ålder. Alexander Roslin erkände offentligen sin hustrus talang som konstnär, och han hävdade att hon var en skickligare pastellmålare än han själv. Giroust invaldes 1770 i den franska konstakademin, Acad??mie royale. 1771 utställde hon sitt porträtt av abb?? Lemonnier, som fick mycket beröm. Hon måladet i pastell. Marie-Suzanne Giroust avled i bröstcancer i slutet av augusti 1772.
Earle Grantham Teale
American , 1886-1919